I’d rather make the standard work day shorter than see the school day become longer. Americans in general spend too much time in the office, anyway. Making kids sit in a classroom until 5 or 6pm sounds like a version of hell to me.

Steve, Winnipeg, Canada

Jonathan,

I agree with Daylight Savings Time. Toss It Out!

It is so stupid and we should all get rid of it. I can’t stand it. Some people say it helps farmers. If that is true then why doesn’t Saskatchewan have it? Someone answer me that!

RJS

I don’t understand why Daylight Savings Time is so unpopular. I don’t want to see the sun rise at 4:30 and set at 8:30 during the summer – I much prefer 5:30-9:30. It has nothing to do with saving energy and a lot to do with a long sunlit evening after work.

jesse

I think the best that I can do is say amen to Jonathan and Phil, with a double amen to Rana.

JamesG

I’d toss out the “Toss out the all volunteer military.” It is a cornerstone of American liberty that kings and rulers may not force every young man (and these days young woman) into forced service. All you need to be reminded of why this is so important is a trip along Boston’s Freedom Trail, and a little knowledge of how young boys and African American men were treated in service on the USS Constitution…much less how they were treated before the Revolution by the kings of England. Nay, that one should *not* be on the list. There are great reasons the draft is a dire measure, not the rule of the day.

And that’s before I get into the experiences of my friends forced into service the USSR and post-USSR Russia.

JamesG

By the way, that “brainstorming” suggesting is great irony, being that asking people to quickly list what they’d get rid of is itself…

Joe Canner

JamesG, I thought the same thing before I read Ricks’ explanation. He thinks an all-volunteer military makes it too easy to use the military for things that aren’t in our best interests and that having a draft would make the government think long and hard before using it. I don’t know if getting rid of the volunteer military is the answer, but he makes a good point.

Robin

Most tax deductions and credits, the AMT, and the differential rate on capital gains.

campaign ads and polls that come out every hour
high-fructose corn syrup
lima beans
uncivil speech
spiders (especially the big ones)
low waisted pants
greed
and the rest of the 7 deadly sins
hunger
poverty
war
not necessarily in order of importance

Barb

oh yeah and TV reality shows

Rick

1/3 of the baseball, basketball, and hockey seasons, including cutting the length of their playoffs.

Also, “one-and-dones” in college basketball. Either go straight from college to the NBA, or commit to 2 or 3 yrs of college ball (similar to how college baseball has it).

Amos Paul

If the citizenry accepted coercive labor in the form of forced military membership, the government leaders would still use them in whatever ways they pleased.

What WOULD hold the government accountable is if they couldn’t artificially ‘fund’ our military empire by simply printing off greater debt via the Fed. It used to be when currency was tied to commodities beyond the government’s printing control that the government had to either have a war fund saved up or raise taxes to support their war efforts which quickly dried up the budget. The citizenry would rightfully revolt at the notion of giving the government more money to fund immoral and unnecessary wars.

Now that we’re civilized and modern, the government can ‘fund’ whatever wars they please by simply making up new money that de-values all the rest of our cash. There’s a reason the past century in American has been called the 100 years of war.

I first was thinking of waiters/waitresses showing of their navel rings when serving people!
but I think there is more important stuff we could go without, like people saying they are totally pro life and are against abortion and are against single payer healthcare so that people can have a dignified life, and don’t want to help ‘welfare moms’ (probably must be men who are deciding all these things since they are not the once who become pregnant all the time- right?!).
We can also do without the people saying that they are totally pro life and send the lower class over and over to the front. And they say they are totally pro life and want to wage war but are against the draft, because they certainly don’t want their sons and daughters to be drafted. It’s alway great to be for love and peace if it doesn’t take you or somebody from your family.

if we would do without those kind of thoughts then maybe we could concentrate more on how we can help ‘the least of these’!